Preview of What's to Come

So here's a little preview to the video I will be making soon of the entire trip. This is from when we were at Cape Blanca making dinner, eating dinner, and watching the sunset with it's beautiful surroundings. Also the video is sped up, we don't really move that fast. (:
(Also I suggest watching the video on Youtube and not on the blog seeing as how the window is really small on the blog).

Bucket List Aftermath

Alright so I suppose it's time to check off some things on the bucket list. Unfortunately we did not get all of them done, and looking at it now I really wonder why we didn't do some of the ones we never got to. We had to alter it a little bit and we did add a few things onto the list. But we did more than 2/3, so that's not too bad I guess. If it has an "[x]" next to it, it means we did it, if it has a ":(" next to it, well I think that's self explanatory.
For some reason we never wrote this list down so some of the things on here were simply not completed because we couldn't remember what they were. The others we just didn't have the balls to do.

- Get kicked off of somebody's property [x]
- See the Golden Gate Bridge [x]
- Make it back home [x]
- Have a fire/bonfire so good that it attracts strangers :( (There really wasn't anywhere where a bonfire would have been a sensible idea.. AT ALL)
- Have a jam session with strangers around that bonfire :(
- Have a jam session in a spiritual/natural place [x]
- High five a stranger [x]
- Order a coffee anywhere in the US with a stereotypical Canadian accent... eh. :(
- Give a stranger/hitchhiker a ride [x]
- Get drunk in the US [x]
- Get a girls phone number [x] (technically speaking)
- Make at least one person believe we live in igloos :(
- Walk around LA in Canucks attire [x]
- Learn to play the ukelele [x] (I guess that's kind of a matter of opinion)
- Tip a cow :(
- Ask where the nearest Tim Hortons is :(
- Go through a drive-thru and rap the order  :(
- Go skinny dipping [x]
- Hug a stranger [x]
- Sneak onto a campsite [x]
- Get woken up in the middle of the night by cops [x]
- Tell somebody I am half black [x]
- Give at least 150 people the peace sign [x] (We didn't actually count, but I'm sure it's well above 150)

Border...line Intense

Day 34: Sunday May 12th, 2013... was an interesting day to say the least. It went a little bit something like this; James and I were rudely woken up by a truck full of cows being transported. I guess somebody thought it was funny to park his huge truck full of noisy cows RIGHT next to a camper van with people obviously sleeping inside. I suppose its good though, because it was like an alarm clock we couldn't turn off or hit the snooze button on, so we were forced to get up. At this point we were still in the US and were bound to hit the US/Canada border later that day. There was still some stuff we had to get rid of before we hit the border so we did and headed straight North. Before even reaching the border we were scarily close to having a head on collision with another vehicle. As you can imagine, a 1973 camper van isn't exactly up there with the top vehicles when it comes to accelerating rapidly or braking strongly. Seeing as we were stuck behind a vehicle that was slower than us (which was a very rare occurrence on this trip) we figured we would pass it - and by doing so we had to go into the oncoming traffic lane. James swung out and The Headbanger didn't exactly accelerate at the rate we had hoped for. James pushed the petal to the metal (literally as hard as he could) and we juuust managed to get back into our lane on time. If we weren't fully awake before that happening, we were now.
Soon after this we reached the border and of course, we were told to pull over so that they could check through the van and look for anything that we were potentially bringing into Canada which we weren't supposed to. In all honesty though, I think they were simply just jealous again and wanted to look inside The Headbanger. Before searching the van (not very thoroughly I imagine, potentially due to the stench in there that had accumulated over 5 weeks), they asked us whether we had any tobacco, fruits, or vegetables. Before I could say anything, James, cool as ever, simply said, "Nope". But this was not 100% true. In fact we still had an orange in the fridge, a bag or carrots next to the driver seat, an a cigar chilling on the cabinet. Now, either they did not care, they didn't see the items, they couldn't stand being inside The Headbanger due to the smell, or all of the above, but they soon returned and said, "Nice van man, what year is it?" (A phrase we must have heard a million times on this trip). We were now back in Canada again. Home sweet home.
Within about half an hour of being in Canada we saw a deer on the side of the road. I would like to make it clear that it was on the OPPOSITE side of the road, next to the oncoming traffic lane. James slowed the van down slightly so that we could take a closer, longer look at the beast. But one can only slow down so much on a highway. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere the deer decides it would be safer on the other side of the road, and thus hopped across the road. Not expecting this to happen, James once again, pushed the petal to the metal (this time the brake, not the accelerator), and had to swerve onto the oncoming traffic lane (which luckily had no traffic on it within our near surroundings). Sitting in the passenger seat, I could clearly see that we missed killing Bambi by less than a meter. If there had been oncoming traffic in the other lane, we would either have had a head on collision (which wouldn't go down too well in a camper van), or we would have banged a head with The Headbanger (and finally not one of ours). Luck seemed to be on our side today.
Within an hour of being in Canada we saw a liquor store and figured since we couldn't buy any in the US, we'll pick some up in Canada - regardless of how this sounds, we are not alcoholics. And no, before you start thinking ludicrous thoughts, we did not drink and drive. We know better than that... besides we wouldn't want to spill our drinks. (:
Within two hours of being in Canada we saw a moose on the side of the road. Being experienced road-kill avoiders, we knew exactly what to do and what to expect, so we were a lot more cautious when passing it.
We spent the night in Osoyoos, which I still cannot pronounce correctly.
Aaaah it's nice to be back!

Yellowstone

So as promised, I will write a short summary of our experiences at Yellowstone National Park. We had arrived slightly late on the first day and did not get the opportunity to see everything that we had wanted to on the first day we arrived there, so we decided to find a nice spot in a school parking lot to spend the night before returning the next morning. Despite the uniqueness of Yellowstone, as far as the geysers and hot springs and all of that goes, I was, in all honesty, slightly disappointed with Yellowstone. It was a beautiful place, don't get me wrong, I think it was just a little too busy with tourists (such as ourselves). It sort of seemed that all the cool spots that were "a must see" were packed with people taking photos. This is obviously not the fault of the park itself, but with places like Bryce and The Grand Canyon it was more spread out and we could kind of find our own spots to see nice scenery. I also noticed that all of the wildlife, despite the warnings telling people to stay well back from it, was very tame. We saw a buffalo grazing on some greenery with people standing about 5 meters away from it - the buffalo didn't seem to mind though (which is probably lucky for the unaware tourists). The natural hot springs, mudpots, fumaroles and geysers are absolutely fascinating though, and I feel blessed to have been able to witness them.
At this point we were desperate to shower, and were severely disappointed to find out that the campsite there did not offer showers, however we were very pleased to find that the hotels offered showers to the public. Showers that DID NOT HAVE A TIME LIMIT!!! Soooo nice.
From Yellowstone we dipped back out of Wyoming and continued to head towards the border (which we did not reach that day). The border crossing is a story on it's own so I'll leave that for the next entry.

It's Been a While.

I really should have blogged more in the past few days because since Las Vegas, we have seen and experienced a whole lot! We are currently sitting inside a Tim Hortons (yes we are back in Canada) and I don't have a whole lot of time to write about what we've seen but I'll attempt to sum it up as best I can in a short period of time.
First stop after Las Vegas was the Grand Canyon, which we expected to be cool but not as jaw droppingly beautiful as it really was. We did a "supposed" 4-6 hour hike in about 3 and still felt pumped by the time we got back to where we had parked. There really aren't enough words I can use to describe it, so I suggest looking at the photos we took of the spot once James' lazy butt uploads them. (:
Next stop was Bryce Canyon. James and I kind of disagree on this one, but in my opinion Bryce Canyon was the most spectacular spot we stopped at from all of the places we have visited on this trip. James still thinks the Grand Canyon trumps Bryce by quite a ways, however everyone is entitled to their opinion. The reason I was most drawn to Bryce out of the places we had visited was because of the mountainous rock formations, and the colours of the surface. Not to sound like a total hippy or anything, but I felt very connected to nature in this spot. If you are reading this I highly suggest you visit it (and the Grand Canyon too) if you ever have the opportunity to. At Bryce we also met a fellow Dutchman (I knew he was from The Netherlands because I could hear him speak Dutch) so I decided to start speaking Dutch to him as well... I kind of regret doing so now. Once we started talking to the gentleman he just blabbered on and on about how great he was, how he's walked the distance of the earth's equator several times, how Americans are fat and lazy, and how he supposedly has a photographic memory which came in useful in Vegas. His wife didn't seem too amused either. As James would say, "effing Dutch people".
If you go to google images and search Bryce Canyon, you will see large red rock structures that tower up to a hundred feet. James and I both climbed some (although seeing as I have a fear of heights, I only did once). At the top of one we were joined by two Belgiums who were doing a similar trip to ours and they suggested that we go check out Zion National Park as well. Despite the awesome name of the place, we originally weren't going to check the place out, but we did, got in for free, and saw more beautiful scenery. unfortunately by the time we got there it was already starting to get dark so we did not see the spot as thoroughly as we had wanted to.
From Zion we traveled up North  through Utah (which was much nicer than we had expected) and Salt Lake City. The next stop was Yellowstone which I will write about in the next entry because I do not have enough time to write about it now.
Stay tuned. :)

Back on the Road Again

So the last time I blogged I only got to day one in Santa Barbara, but there was so much more that we did there that I can speak of. The second full day we spent there we had planned to either go kayaking or body boarding, however it was completely overcast, foggy, rainy, and the waves were nothing short of pathetic, so unfortunately we didn't do anything on day two to write home about other than eat another one of Kaye's delicious meals. Originally we had planned to head out the next day, however David talked us into staying another day, and I am sure glad he did. The third full day we were there (technically day 4), the conditions were much better. The sun was beaming down, there were signs of waves, and their kayak was strapped to the roof of The Headbanger as we headed down to the shore to go kayaking. We headed out on the water for a ways and saw some sea lions, who pretty much just minded their own business. The wave activity that far out on the water wasn't all too exciting, so we said "peace" to the sea lions and headed to a section with better wave activity. Once we got there we decided to try and surf a few, on the kayak... THIS WAS EPIC! We only really caught two solid ones and we capsized both times, making James lose his sunglasses in the process. The third and final wave we caught was when we were getting back to shore where we set out. The waves appeared to be much smaller than they apparently really were so we thought we could catch one with little difficulty - that wasn't the case. The final wave we caught made us capsize once again however this time we were in super shallow waters and I got dragged under the kayak which gave me some pretty nice scratch and cut lines all along my back. I believe James got a few as well, however he was lucky because he was seated in the back thus didn't get the worst of it. Despite the losses and injuries, the whole adventure was completely worth it, and I'd head out again in a minute if I had the chance to.
Next stop we made was LA. We drove through Beverly Hills, we saw the Hollywood sign (it really wasn't that exciting), and drove down Sunset Blvd, before making our last big stop at Venice Beach where we took a look around. There are definitely some interesting characters down there - people trying to sell you their music, a whole bunch of hippies playing guitars and drums mediocrely (?), a guy on roller-skates with an afro in armour playing the electric guitar, and a whole lot more. But the few people I mentioned really stuck out the most. All in all it was kinda cool there, we stopped for a while at the skate bowl and watched some people shred some concrete, then passed the football around with some people, one who called me "white boy".
From Los Angeles  we went down to Death Valley. Several people had suggested it to me and I really wanted to go take a look there, however we were also looking at the temperatures of the place and were debating whether we should go or not. I am glad that we did decide to go. Although it was very hot and dry there, it was also very beautiful. We made sure we had lots of water, and we strapped two jerry cans on top of the vehicle in case we got stranded or had to spend the night there. There isn't really a lot to talk about with Death Valley so I suggest looking at the pictures we have from there for they will speak louder than words.
From Death Valley we headed to Las Vegas which is where we are now. We arrived the night of Friday, May the 3rd and are now about to head of on the road again on May the 5th. We have been staying with Blu, Chelle, their two children Lily and Madison, their dog Mojo, and their two goldfish (who's names I do not know). They have all been really friendly to the two of us. Blu is James' cousin and that's how we have connections here.
Yesterday we went and drove to Las Vegas Boulevard and walked down the street and into a few casinos and saw a show. It was a shame we weren't 21, because we would have liked to both played the slot machines at least once each, just so we can say we've done it. We even tried to, but all the machines needed "credits" which means that you have to exchange your money for credits at a kiosk somewhere. Something we both noted is that it seemed like 95% of the people inside casinos did not seem to be happy to be there, however they would continue to feed the machines like robots and blow their money. But we got a nice brief view of what it was like there.
Next stop The Grand Canyon?

I would also like to spend this next paragraph to thank both Kaye and David for the awesome time, and hospitality they showed us, James and myself had an excellent time in Santa Barbara! I would also like to thank Blu, Chelle, Lily, Madison, Mojo, and the goldfish of course, for letting us crash in your home and showing us both such utter friendliness and making us feel like we were at home. We both really appreciate it!